Monday, April 25, 2011

With the official bookstore release of Eutopia: A Novel of Terrible Optimism just a week off, we figured it was high time to unleash this on the world. Eutopia: A Novel of Terrible Optimism, the Trailer. Karen Fernandez and I shot this past summer, and Karen put it all together, in hopes - optimistic hopes, if that's not redundant - that book trailers actually work at getting readers to buy books.

We'll see how it goes. There's some fine, terrifying music - by Jon and Al Kaplan, the composers of Silence - The Musical and other morsels - and a good dose of backwoods evil. Go have a look.

The trailer's also embedded in the brand new Eutopia section of The Devil's Exercise Yard, right here. Go there, and you can see all the reviews that have emerged so far, some Lawrence Nickle illustrations that are otherwise only in the limited edition hardcover, and a sample chapter.

And as long as you're clicking through, check out this review from Paul Goat Allen at Barnes and Noble's community blog. He writes, among other things in a very kind review: "Nickle’s debut novel Eutopia – an entrancing amalgam of historical thriller, dark fantasy and weird fiction – is an utterly creepy, bladder-loosening, storytelling tour de force."

Friday, April 22, 2011

You go along in a writing career, and you hope for certain milestones. Selling the first short story; selling the first novel; winning an award... and, if you write horror, getting a major newspaper review comparing your book to Stephen King's work, in the days when he was really on fire and putting out books like The Shining, Misery and Pet Sematary... the early Dark Tower volumes...

Well, today I can scratch that one off the list. Alex Good of the National Post offered up a very kind review of Eutopia: A Novel of Terrible Optimism, that had, among other things, this to say:

"Toronto author David Nickle's debut novel, the followup to his brilliantly wicked collection of horror stories Monstrous Affections, establishes him as a worthy heir to the mantle of Stephen King. And I don't mean the King of Under the Dome or other recent flops, but the master of psychological suspense who ruled the '80s with classics like Pet Sematary."

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

It's a couple of weeks now before the official release date of Eutopia, but that date really only applies to the dead tree versions of the novel. E-books are out there, as of this week. E-junkie is selling MOBI, EPUB and PDF versions, right here. Amazon.com has also released the Kindle version, right here, and the Kobo store's selling the Kobo EPUB version over at Chapters-Indigo, right here.

Dead tree version should be hitting bookstores and Amazon May 3. And ChiZine Publications will be launching it in Austin, Texas, at the World Horror Convention, a few days before. That's where I'll be too. Right here.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

The title line says it all, yard-apes. This weekend marks the 30th anniversary of Ad Astra - the local Toronto sf convention where we Torontonian sf people go each spring to see one another, talk about all things genre and hone our knife-throwing skills. I'll be there this weekend, on panels and doing a mini-launch for Eutopia.

Speaking of which - I'd be remiss if I didn't crow a bit, about a lovely review of my first solo novel by Chris Hallock over at ALL THINGS HORROR. It is a very lovely review indeed - I'm flattered to within an inch of my life - and in recognition of that, I'm going to quote a little more extensively than I do from these things:

Eutopia is the kind of book I'd recommend to literary snobs who badmouth the horror genre while completely ignoring the multitudes of splendid books on the shelves. Nickle comes from a different cut of cloth than a lot of current horror authors. He’s created a unique world that’s a far cry from any of the current trends in horror fiction. In fact, his style seems generations removed from all the apocalyptic zombie and vampire novels on the market. Thankfully, he understands that the most important ingredients are strong characters, originality, and a compelling story. That his novel is also dark, frightening, and beautifully written is just icing on the cake.

Eutopia crosses genres in a world where folks from a rustic Faulkner novel might clash with H.P. Lovecraft’s monstrosities. Add a dash of Cronenbergian body horror to atmosphere worthy of Poe, and you get one of the most original horror stories in years.

The whole review's posted right here, for the perusal of curious yard-apes.

Eutopia: A Novel of Terrible Optimism

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The Devil's Exercise Yard

This is the blog portion of my website, The Devil's Exercise Yard. It does all the things you've come to expect from blogs - although it won't be telling you what I'm eating, my mood, or whether my shirt needs laundering. Very occasionally, it may offer some insight to something you haven't thought about, or some update of news you haven't heard before. So keep checking it. Be obsessive. Give in to your inner web stalker. Click and click and click. It's the only way you'll be sure not to miss anything.

About Me

From the website:
I'm David Nickle, and I write stories. Most of them are what you'd call horror stories. But in the mix are science fiction, fantasy, and some stories that are just stories. Not one of them is true. I've had some of them published, in places like The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, the Northern Frights series, the Queer Fear series, Cemetery Dance, On Spec, and a whole bunch others. I've only got one novel out (The Claus Effect, with Karl Schroeder), and a story collection, Monstrous Affections (all on my own) - but I'm working on adding some more to the list.
From the blog:
I'm also a journalist. I write for the Toronto Community News group of community newspapers in Toronto, covering municipal politics in the big city. It's a good gig. But I blog about city politics for the paper, so you probably won't hear much about that sort of thing here.
Need to get in touch? Email me at davidnickle(at)gmail(dot)com.